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Azeel and Thalos were wandering the streets in search of some place to get a meal and perhaps a place to spend the night, when suddenly they came across a tall and wide building with a large sign. It was engraved "Michael Scott Memorial Library". The arctic white wolf tilted his head up to his friend, Azeel. "C'mon Az, I'm starving." Thalos barked, although being part animal Azeel understood every word he said. "Oh, please?" she pleaded, "Just a quick look? You know how I love to read." Her black cat ears poked up out of her beautiful blonde hair and her lovely blue eyes shined brightly as she remembered how when she was little-and stil human-how she would sit and for hours do nothing but read and lose herself in adventures. How she had such a good imagination and could literally imagine herself there, in the pages, standing right next to the characters and even befriending the protagonist of the story.

Thalos groaned in his canine way and gave in. "Alright, alright. But quickly!" he added the last bit fast as she smiled and ran off up the steps, and pushed open the big doors of the Library. A bell chimed above the door when she walked inside. She gasped in amazement. Never before had she seen so many different books. Shelves and more shelves filled with all shapes and sizes of different types of books. Big ones, small ones, wide ones, tall ones. "Amazing ..." breathed Azeel. She twirled on the spot and let her slender tail sway behind her. She grinned and ran over to the "Fantasy" labelled section. She always did love fantasy. The section was very long. Hundreds and hundreds of books. She breathed in, expecting to smell the scent of fresh pages and clean novels, but instead sneezed when dust entered her synesis. She sniffed and sneezed again.

Once her fit of sneezing had come to an end and she had brushed herself off, Azeel walked back over to the section and stared carefully at the books. They were all a sort of grey colour, but when she ran her finger along the spine of a book, she realised it was green. She did the same with some others to discover they were all the colour but grey. Dust. They were covered in dust. Azeel also noticed that the lights of the Library were dim and the corners of the enormous place were filled with cobwebs. Azeel walked out from the section and looked for any signs of life other then her and Thalos.

"Hello?" she called out. She waited ... Nothing. So, louder she repeated, "Hellooooo??" her words echoed repeatedly. No use. No one else was there. There was a eerie creaking noise that came from the back of the Library and suddenly Azeel felt it best if she left. "Thalos," she called, "let's go now." No response. "Thalos?!" She sighed. "Yes?" Azeel jumped and the fur on her tail stood on end and swayed about agitatedly. "Don't-do-that!" she demanded. "Sorry ... why the sudden change of options?" he asked. "I ... I don't find this place as interesting as I did before." Thalos yawned and Azeel could see how far he could make his jaws part. Wouldn't want to be HIS dinner, thought Azeel. "It is getting late," agreed Thalos. "Hey, wait a second," he sniffed the air then followed a trail. Azeel groaned but reluctantly followed after her friend.

When he finally stopped he stopped in an unfamiliar section. His nose was nudging a turned down back lying flat against the floor. He was desperately trying to flip it up with his nose, so Azeel did him the favour and went and picked it up, and as she got closer to it, she could smell it with her high smelling senses too. Although, a dogs nose is better then a humans AND a cats put together. Azeel scanned the page and noticed a picture of a clean white plate, and on the plate was a nice big blob of spaghetti bolognaise. It looked good right about now, especially on a empty stomach. Azeel sniffed the picture and salivated, much like Thalos was doing but stopped still when she realised something ... why could they smell a picture? Thalos restrained himself from tearing out the page from the cookbook and swallowing the paper when he too himself understood. Azeel dropped the book but as it tumbled to the ground, out of it fell a single peice of pasta and landed at there feet. Azeel gasped and Thalos jumped. "What IS this place?!" asked Azeel, shocked. Thalos said nothing. "I do not think this to be a everyday normal library, Az." he finally barked quietly. "Maybe we should leave." he said.

Azeel lent down and hesitated, before poking at the pasta. She found it to be quite real and hot, surprised she jumped back and accidentally bumped into the shelf behind her, knocking down a couple of books. When she turned around she found that two to three books had fallen down ... faced up and open. And then, suddenly, out of them flew a blur of black figures which then they both recognised as gargoyles. Next came a very violent looking poltergeist and a vampire. The cookbook had been in the wrong section, they were in the horror part. The lights above flickered and a snarl escaped from Thalos's mouth which now beared his teeth and Azeel unintentionally hissed with her ears back.

Jack was walked back throught the streets and wondering that it was about time that he actually found a place to stay. He didn't really think it would be safe to stay in an Allay, but he also was unwilling to spend the outragoues prices most of the hotels he had stopped into had asked for. Thats when he saw the Library. It was an impressive building though desipite its size it seemed to be fairly run down. He figured if he could hide in the stacks until they closed that might be at least a little safer then the streets.

As he approached he noticed a women and a wolf? enter the library ahead of him. He quietly followed them wondering if the dog could smell him over the thousands of other scents in the city. He got there about a minute after them and tried to quietly slip in. The door creaked slightly even though he had made an effort to be quiet with it. When he got in he perked up his head using his rather impressive hearing to try and locate the girl.

She was apparantly only a few stacks away. As he walked Jack noticed that the library seemed to go on much farther then the building outside had implied. He looked up and agian it seemed to extend on with way to many floors. The inside of the library was much bigger the the outside. another place in the Nightside, another myster He thought to himself. It seemed like every time he entered a building something unusual happend. He had gotten to the point that if he walked into a room and it was perfectly normal it would surprise him more then anything had seen in the short time since he entered the city. Though he had a hard time telling exactly what time it was with the moon never changing.

He got to an aisle marked "Fantasy" that was covered with dusty books. The girl wasn't in it but he noticed that many of the books looked to be ancient. Carefully he slid his finger across the books before he found one that seemed like it might be worth the risk and pulled it out quietly placing the book in a bag at his side. He sniffed once and sneezed. He had smelled food somewhere...and gotten a nose full of dust for tryign to figure out what it was exactly. The next second he heard a growl and ran in the direction of the noise.

There was the girl, whe he now noticed to be another cat girl. There pretty common in this place apparently he thought. Jack continued looking and noticed comeing out of the books were a group of creatures that seemed to be from a horror story. He dashed forward jumped and kicked out with both feet landing a drop kick that vampire full in the chest. The surpised creature flew back and skidded across the floor and stopped moving a couple aisle's down. It had started to get up. While Jack's kick had been impressive it most likely wouldn't hurt a creature like that.

He scooped up the collection of books that had been knocked over, turned, and bolted the girl and her wolf. "Come on we have to go." he pointed in the direction af the doors as he ran past her.

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Frustrated, confused and scared, Azeel had begun to consider retracting her razor sharp claws. But just as she was about to do so, a stranger swiftly ran past her and kicked the approaching vampire in the chest, causing him to fly suddenly backwards. But shortly after he had started to get to his feet. He then picked up the fallen books, turned around and ran. He told them they had to go and pointed in the direction of which they had come in. Azeel, hardly one to trust strangers, hesitated but soon followed, beckoning Thalos to follow quickly behind. Which he did.

Azeel leaped through the air, did a front flip and landed with more grace then she had beforehand next to this helpful stranger and continued running beside him. "Who-who are you?" she panted. Before he could answer, still running, she put a hand on his shoulder to make him slow down for her to catch up just a faction and a flood of thoughts came rushing into her mind and made her jump back as she grew dizzy. Then one word lit up in her thoughts.

Jack...

"Jack?" she asked quizzically in a whisper as she stopped running and Thalos zoomed past her. Just then the three gargoyles from the book flew up in time to catch her and swooped at her from all angles. Azeel was not skilled enough yet with her abilities to even get out of a situation that this "Jack" would find perfectly simple. They taunted her and pinched her while trying to get a good handful of her blonde hair. Mischievous things! "Close the book, close the book!" howled Thalos. But Jack couldn't understand what he was saying so Azeel shouted for him.

At first he ran past the girl and she seemed more shocked by his sudden entrance then by the creatures that had jumped out of the book and attacked her. He realized that it might be slightly hard to trust someone who just turned up out of no where and tells you to follow him. Jack knew he would but he was mostly the adventurous sort and usually had found a way to benefit from the person...even if they had planned him ill originaly.

Fortuantly the girl decided not to argue. The danger of the creatures that came out of the book was much higher then the dangers of a random strange that had so obviously tried to save the girls life. Jack turned his head forward agian so that he wasn't running forward while looking behind him. That really could end poorly. He almost stopped dead when he looked ahead though as the girl had landed almost directly in front of him. She was faster then she looked since Jack was by no means slow. She asked who he was and touched his shoulder.

Jack turned and nodded at her. "The names..." He started in his usual introduction. He voice trailed of for a second as she finished his sentence with his name. That had been unexpected. He grimiced and immediatly tried to clear his head of any readable surface thoughts that she might pick up. He had dealt with telepathy in creatures before he came to the Nightside. It came with with the territory of collecting supernatural artifacts.

Then suddenly the girl was in the air, grabbed by one of the gargoyles. The flock had caught up to them while they were busy talking. Her wolf growled and then she screamed at him to rip the pages in the book. Rip them? he thought. But that would damage a perfectly good book that he could probally sell. He looked down at the books he had then looked back down the aisle. There was a book to the side that he had missed that ws wide open. It was glowing faintly and he saw that one of the pages was slowly turning as if the book was being read. "Crap!" He exclaimed and leapt back in the direction vaulting over the vampire that had just managed to catch up to them.

He made a beeline for the book jumping the last distance, which was farthre then an olympic could have even dreamed of jumping. He landed right in front of the book. The words seemed to bleed of the page into the air around them. Suddenly the swirled into the air and a clawed hand appeared out of them and grasped at his throat. Jake snapped out of the strange effect that book seemed to put him and snapped the book shut with a loud 'THUMP!'

He turned around and looked to see if that had any effect on the girls unfortunate situation.

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Azeel, stressed out by the infuriating gargoyles, only just noticed as Jack jumped a vast distance and landed right in front of a faintly glowing book which Azeel had only just realised was there. The words seemed to rip right off of the page and swirled around like a whirlpool as suddenly a hand was created and reached for his throat. Azeel gasped. If only she wasn't being swooped and picked on by the evil creatures she'd run to help him as he'd helped her. No need apparently, he slammed the book shut and the hand evaporated into nothing.

When he turned to look at Azeel, something happened. The words from the book snaked and twisted through the air to spin around her quickly, knocking back the flying beasts. Before they could return, the now ethereal looking words shot up and tangled themselves around the gargoyles and at the same time when Jack had snapped the book closed, the words had disappeared, but so had the gargoyles.

When Azeel walked over to Jack and opened the book very carefully, on the page, was a picture of Jack, herself (Thalos in the background) and the three gargoyles, wrapped up in a tangle of black inked words. Another picture below showed the gargoyles-which wasn't a frozen picture like the one above it-banging their fists angrily against some type of barrier in front of them. They were forever once again trapped in a novel. She firmly closed the book and looked up at Jack.

Apparently with the book closed the magic that kept the creatures in the real world failed and they suddenly disappeared. The book had pretty much reached out and yanked the creatures back into the pages. That had looked like a most unpleasent fate to have.

Jack looked at the inside of the book intrigued. It had transposed a picture of him and this girl onto the pages. He was glad that book hadn't literally pulled him and the girl into it. That would have been most defiantly annoying and possibly quite fatal. Jack took the book seemingly pulled a long thick string out of his sleeve and then tied a very tight knot around the book. He then put it in the bag he had put the other books in. He defiently didn't want it opening at random. It was kind of dangerous to carry around but it probaly would catch a nice price somewhere.

The girl looked up at him and then thanked him for his help. He nodded and raised one white furred hand to shake hands. "Your welcome." One of his ears twitched slightly and scratched it. "Your just lucky I was passing by, you have to be more careful in this city." He really hadn't been here long himself but he had been part of the world of the mystical and supernatural for quite some time. There dangers were all over the world, the main thing about the Nightside is that they were much more...condensed.

"You have me at a disadvantage miss." He continued. "You already know my name but don't know your's or anything about you." He then let his eyes travel down to look at the wolf that seemed to follow the girl. "And who might your friend be, wolves rarely follow people." He smiled at the creature. He assumed that it had to be smarter then your average one or it would have ran in terror when the gargoyles had attacked.

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Azeel raised her hand in return and shook Jack's. He also had fur, but because he could walk on two legs like her she was interested. She smiled and brought her hand back to her side and he said your welcome. He explained how lucky she was that he was passing by and that she would have to be more careful in this city. She agreed with him, very much so. "You have me at a disadvantage miss," he had said, "you already know my name but I don't know your's or anything about you." To this Azeel couldn't help but smile again, she did that a lot really; smile. "I'm Azeel, but if you'd prefer you can just call me Az," she introduced kindly, "and well ... I'm not so sure about what I am myself actually." She shrugged, secretly a little disappointed with herself that she didn't have much more to say to Jack. He did after all help her out when he could have just walked right on by.

When he asked who Azeel's friend was she turned to Thalos and he added that they rarely followed people. "He's very loyal." she laughed. "And very protective ... too protective." she lightly chided him. But the wolf seemed to shrug it off. "His name is Thalos. Go ahead boy, say hi, he's alright. He's a friend." Thalos sniffed him and cautiously barked a, "Hello there ... Jack." But the wolf had said it in a tone that seemed to be tainted with jealousy. To him, this Jack fellow was good looking enough for Azeel, and he was afraid she would instantly leave him and run off with her hero. Azeel didn't know it, but Thalos was more intelligent then any normal wolf, as they usually were when animals entered Nightside apparently, and he had more feelings towards her then she did for him. She thought of him as a friend ... he thought of her as more.

But it was too complicated to ever bring up with her, so instead he simply hovered around her feet and tried to distract her attention from Jack. No such luck. She was in full conversation with him. And even though the wolf had nothing to fear, he still felt the way he did. That was something he unfortunately, couldn't help. It was in his nature.

But Azeel's nature was kind, polite and sweet. Also a tomboy, but that's a different story. And her instincts were telling her that Jack was a friend. "So, would you maybe like to get a coffee or something? Fighting off angry gargoyles and escaping the grasps of blood lusting vampires that escaped from books kind of makes me thirsty." she joked. But then she wondered to herself ... do they even have coffee here?

"So Miss Az" he said. "What exactly are you doing in this library?" He asked. It seemed an odd place to just walk into. Jack mentally kicked himself. He now had to think of a reason for himself to be here. Saying I followed you in here really wasn't the best way to start a relationship of any kind with someone. People usually found it rather creepy and avoided it after they heard something like that. He remembered the book he picked up. That would be a good enough excuse since he was in a library after all.

Jack looked down at the wolf. He felt a quite a bit of animosity directed towards him from the wolf. "Thalos is it." Jack said putting on his 'i'm happy to see you' smile. "It's good to meet you." He lied. He put out his hand to offer a hand/paw/ whatever shake. He really didn't like the look that the wolf was giving him at all. Apparently while Azeel seemed to fall for his charm pretty easily this creature defiantly was paranoid of him. Jack shrugged he figured that the harder the challenge the better you feel when you succed. Though he did wonder what it took to befriend a paranoid wolf.

"Coffee?" That was a good start. "I would love to." The girl asked if the Nightside had a place to get coffee. "Miss Az, you can find just about anything here in the Nighside a cup of coffee should be easy." Though Jack though about this for a second. The type of coffee you find might be kind of dangerous. Who knows what they would put in the coffee in this kind of place. Probably should order it black He thought to himself. So he waved his hand towards the exit looking at the wolf. "Why doesn't mister Thalos lead the way." He grinned at the creature. Hoping it would at least start to lighting up around him.

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

"So Miss Az," Jack said, "what exactly are you doing in this library?" he asked. "Oh, nothing really ... we were just passing by and, well, I can't resist a good read." she laughed. Jack looked down at Thalos. "Thalos is it?" Jack asked with a odd smile. "It's good to meet you." he said, but Thalos knew instantly he was being untruthful. Jack offered his hand to Thalos. The wolf sniffed it, coughed, and passed.

Thalos, said Azeel through thought, don't be rude.

Thalos gave him a wolf-like glare. He didn't like him very much at all. And his animal heart sank when Azeel had asked if they would like to get some coffee. Would this mean that Thalos had to spend even more time having to deal with Azeel getting to know him?!

"Coffee?" Jack repeated, as more of a question. "I would love to." Azeel smiled at Jack and through the corner of her eye she could see Thalos's jealous glance. "Why doesn't mister Thalos lead the way." Jack grinned. Thalos gave a very quiet and low growl and trudged forward, constantly looking behind him to see if they were holding hands yet. How silly it was when it came to jealousy; but it was something that couldn't be helped, it was after all, in his nature.

Azeel walked with Jack until they came to a place that sold coffee and waited for Jack to order his. Looks like she'd made a new friend.

Jack walked with Azeel and Thalos until they ended up at a coffee shop that seemed fine. He looked inside and didn't really see anything two frighting or bizarre. He opened the door for Azeel and the wolf though he still noticed that Thalos really didn't like him. How exactly do I exactly change that. He smiled at the wolf and let the two in.

He walked up and looked around. "So..." he looked at the girl behind the counter. "...Ann how is your day." The girl looked at him for a second and suppressed a giggle. Jack just smiled at her. The girl said that she had a really good day though she hadn't seen a customer quite like him even in the Nightside. Jack shrugged. "Well I would hope not, I prefer to be a one of a kind."

He leaned forward and looked at the many items behind the counter. "I'm not exactly sure what I want so could you surpise me with something." The girl turned and started to dig through some of the hundreds of different coffee beans. Jack continued after a second. "Though if you please I would rather not have anything that has a good chance or killing me if you don't mind."

He turned towards Azeel. "So Miss Az what will you be having. I'll pay." He pulled a wallet out of his pocket and started to finger through some bills making sure not to show the id which wasn't his. He had borrowed it from a bystander that looked like they had just arrived. Tourists seemed to be quite useful in obtaining money here. They were so surprised and engrossed in everything about the Nightside they really didn't pay attention. Maybe that was why there was such a high fatality rate for newcomers.

"And will Thalos want anything." He looked down at the wolf. "I have never met a wolf who liked coffee but there is a first time for everything."

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Azeel and Jack walked together with Thalos following behind until they reached a Coffee Shop. They agreed on the place and went in to have a look at the menu. Jack talked with the girl behind the counter and ordered what he wanted. Shortly after Jack turned towards Azeel. "So Miss Az, what will you be having? I'll pay." He pulled a wallet and Azeel saw the many money bills he fingered through. Azeel shook her head, she couldn't take money from Jack, she thought it sort of rude although he was being kind and she touched his wallet to make him put it away if he had to pay for her.

Suddenly flashes popped into her head and Azeel felt faint. The wallet had a past all of it's own and mostly Jack wasn't in it. Seconds later that seemed like ages to Azeel she found her feet again and gasped lightly. She frowned and looked to Jack, "This isn't your wallet, is it Jack?" she whispered to him so that she girl behind the counter couldn't here. She waited for Jack's replied and after he had said what he felt he had to, he turned to Thalos and asked what he would perhaps like. Although Thalos didn't like to take things from anyone, he planned to make Jack's life uncomfortable is Azeel was going to grow attached to him, so he ordered something.

"Just some biscuits if they have any, thanks," he barked. Azeel translated and thanked Jack for Thalos when he got what he wanted. They went over to a table, seated themselves and Azeel couldn't help but stare at Jack. "So," she started to strike up a conversation, "how did you find your way to Nightside?"

Jack tried to move the wallet away as she reached for it. Sometimes psychic's could see or feel stuff simply by touching. Crap She had touched it and he saw her move for a second. He sighed, she apparently must of figured out something. She told him the wallet didn't belong to him. Jack chuckled and shook his head. Then whispered to her. "Well I think the correct description would be it wasn't mine." He waved the wallet again to indicate that it was in his hand. "But technically its mine now."

"Biscuits?" Jack said looking down at the wolf. "Sure thing." He looked back at the girl behind the counter. She handed him the drink and started to ring him up Jack held up a finger really quick. "The wolf here wants some biscuits you got any?" Ann thought for a second then nodded pulling out a small back of them. She gave him the price and he nodded. Well here ya go. He handed the girl double the money of the order. "Here ya go. Keep the change." He touched the girls hand as she took the money and gave her a wink before walking away with Azeel. An blushed slightly then looked surprised when she realized just how much she had been tipped.

Finally they sat down and Azeel asked him how he ended up in the Nightside. "Well, I looked for it." He told her a slightly modified story of how he had become like he is. He sort of glossed overly the less then legal aspects of his life and emphasized on the strange happenstance that created his unusual appearance. Then he continued on how he had looked for the Nightside since there weren't a lot of places in this world where a rabbit man like me could go without being seen. "So how exactly did you end up in a place like this if you didn't go looking for it?"

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Jack shook his head at Azeel which caused her to raise a eyebrow in curiosity. Then he whispered that technically it was borrowed, but is his now. Azeel frowned; she had taken a shining to Jack. But there was obviously something more to him. He definitely had his fair share of secrets. That Azeel could tell by now.

Jack turned his attention from the Azeel and disappeared up to the counter and returned with exactly what Thalos had asked for. Thalos barked a thanks but eyed Jack cautiously. In his mind, if any harm came to Azeel, someone would pay. That someone would be the one who caused it.

In answer to Azeel question, Jack had gone over his not-so-legal aspects of his life up to this point and she interestedly listened to what he might say next. Apparently he had originally looked for Nightside. Azeel heard Jack's story and could almost picture certain things in her imaginative head.

Once Jack's story had come to an end, Azeel explained her past in answer to his own question. Azeel grew deep in conversation with him and explained everything about her transformation of how she came to be part animal yet remained half human. After a while Azeel sighed and leaned back in her chair as she finished.

"So, Jack"-Azeel racked her brains for something more to say-"...anything else you think I should know about you?"

Jack was very good at reading facial expressions and he picked up on the fact that Azeel was more supsecious of him then he would like. There was defiantly more to her then the slightly ditzy and innocent girl that she seemed to be at first glance. When he gave the wolf what it had ordered he was a little annoyed about the fact that he couldn't really read the creature. Jack wasn't used to meeting something where he couldn't predict how they would act and this wolf was turning out to be quite annoying. Not that he would ever say or show that

"I hope you like'em." He said to the wolf before he had gone into his abringed story about his life. He was glad becuase it seemed that Azeel had been caught up in the story. Hopefully enough to have pushed her feelings about finding out the wallet had been stolen to the back of her mind. He didn't want something like his chosen profession getting in the way of there conversation.

After he had finished the girl responded with her own story. It was fairly intersting, especially the part about her powers being granted to her by what sounded like some sort of spirit. Though he made a point to look sad at the fact that she had lost her parents he had a hard time finding that particulary disturbing. Having left his parents when he was young and never seeing them agian by his own choice. He didn't like them, but he didn't particulary dislike them either.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." He said with a incredibly convincing amount of sadness for her in his voice. "But at least you walked out of the situation with some new abilities." He indicated her now more cat-like qualities. "Your appearence is not quite as rediculues as mine." He did the strange twitch thing with his ear agian to prove what he was talking about. "Now it is so hard to find actual clothes that aren't horribly unconfortable with this fur."

When she asked him if there was anything more about him she should know he shrugged. "Nothing particular, if you have any questions i'll be happy to fill in the blanks."

--------------------

The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.--Douglas Adams-- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.--Douglas Adams--"Mostly Harmless"

Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?--Douglas Adams-- "A Long Dark Teatime For the Soul" %mh%199%mh%

Azeel noticed Jack studying her and shifted about self consciously in her seat. Jack said that he hoped Thalos liked what he had payed for and Azeel caught herself glancing between Thalos and Jack as he greedily chowed down on the biscuits Jack had kindly bought for him. It was then Azeel noticed she was thinking about Jack. Why should she be judgemental at first glance? What-because he stole a wallet? Big deal! He had to survive in Nightside somehow, and by the looks of how thick the wallet was with money, the tourist was clearly a wealthy man. Probably plenty more where that came from.

Not to mention he saved Azeel and helped Thalos out with his grumbling stomach, he even had offered her something and took the time to sit down and talk with her and he obviously trusted her enough to explain the truth ... maybe she should trust him too?

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Jack had said after he patiently listened to her own past before she reached Nightside. "But at least you walked out of the situation with some new abilities." Azeel couldn't help but laugh. It was true. "Your appearance is not quite as ridicules as mine." He twitched his ear like when Azeel did when ever she heard something that caught her attention or even when she didn't notice she was infact doing the action at all, just to prove his point. "Now it is so hard to find actual clothes that aren't horribly uncomfortable with this fur." Azeel suppressed a chuckle politely, she had not meant to take it as a joke. Far from it in truth.

It was after all true, she would have to rip holes in all her pants just so she could walk around comfortable in pants with a tail from then on in for her entire life. Not to mention how annoying it would be to wear hats with her cat ears poking out here and there.

Jack had replied to her by explaining he was more then happy to fill out any blanks Azeel was still unsure of about him and it caused her to smile. "I don't really have anything more to ask ... what about you, Jack? You have any questions for me by any chance?"